John Bush And Joey Vera Of Armored Saint

Talkin' Rock With Meltdown Podcast

Armored Saint singer John Bush and bass player Joey Vera, who are currently out on tour with Queensryche. They'll be coming through Detroit to play the Majestic Theater on April 14th. Joey said of touring with the QR guys, "It's always fun touring with friends, people you get along with." We talked about their experience on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise. "Yeah, they're fun. You always see a lot of people you know." Joey said.

The guys told me about going to Anthrax's Scott Ian's 60th birthday in Las Angeles at the end of 2023. John said there were some really talented people there celebrating the milestone.

The band recently recorded a cover of "One Chain Don't Make No Prison" which they're going to release as a stand-alone single. That being said, the guys are all about making full albums. They talked about album reissues, as well as vinyl copies of all their albums.

I had to ask them about the new Armored Saint music they're working on. As far as writing on the road, Joey said they don't do it. "We just write at our own pace." He went on to say they have six or seven songs demoed. They'll be touring and then returning to the studio to finish it up by the end of the year.

Something I didn't know about Armored Saint was that their first show outside of hometown shows was at Harpos. They said they played a radio station show way back in 1984. "That was our first show ever outside of California," Joey said. John talked of that show being added last minute, as they were supposed to play Chicago first. They also played Cobo Hall on that first tour. "We just couldn't believe what was happening," Joey said of playing some of these classic venues.

Joey told the story of crashing a car with Tommy Lee of Motley Crue. We also talked about their tour with W.A.S.P. and Metallica, where they were snowed-in, in Buffalo, New York. Joey also told a funny story from early in their career about a comment he made about Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P. on the radio.

Great to talk to the guys!